Train Travel in Türkiye: A 12-Day Family Trip on a Budget

£25 for a 14-hour sleeper train with beds, a sink, and power points. £6.50 for a seven-hour scenic ride across central Türkiye. If you've ever assumed Türkiye is a fly-and-spend destination, this episode is here to change that picture entirely.

Tracy is joined by Sinead, a York-based travel blogger and passionate train traveller, to walk through her family's 12-day loop: Istanbul, down to the Aegean coast and the ruins of Ephesus, overnight to Konya, across to Cappadocia, up to Kayseri, into Ankara, and back to Istanbul. Mostly by train, on a real budget, with honest advice on what it actually costs.

✅ Building a Türkiye itinerary around each person's must-sees 

✅ Booking Turkish rail through TCDD, sleeper availability, and mid-route delays 

✅ What train travel is actually like, from sleepers to high-speed first class 

✅ Visiting Ephesus and why the scale and preservation stand out 

✅ Hiking in Cappadocia, finding cave churches, and watching balloons at sunrise for free 

✅ A low-cost mosaic lamp workshop that turned out to be a trip highlight 

✅ Eating well for less and saving money on flights with a reverse search strategy 

✅ Packing light, carrying lira, using Revolut or Wise, and choosing an eSIM

If this episode has got you thinking about your own adventure, our free workbook, Plan Your Dream Trip with Ease, is a brilliant place to start.

If you enjoyed the show, leaving a review on your favourite podcast app helps more travel lovers find us.

Guest - Sinead Camplin from Map Made Memories and York Travel Expert
Show notes - Episode 97

Transcript

A Budget Train Trip Teaser

SPEAKER_02 0:00

What if you could explore Istanbul, Cappadocia, and ancient Ephesus in 12 days, almost entirely by train on a tight budget? This week I'm chatting with Sinead, who did exactly that with her family. From a £25 overnight sleeper cabin to hiking through hidden cave churches, there's so much more to tick here than you might think.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is founder of the Global Travel Planning website, Tracy Collins. Each week, Tracy is joined by expert guests as she takes you on a journey to destinations around the world, sharing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, and practical tips to help you plan your next adventure. Join us as we explore everywhere from bustling cities to remote landscapes, uncover cultural treasures, and discover the best ways to make your travel dreams a reality.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Hi everybody, and welcome to this week's edition of the Global Travel Planner Podcast. This week I have the lovely Sinead back on the podcast again to chat about her recent travels. She was sharing some beautiful pictures on Facebook, and I was like, I need to talk to Sineade about where she has been now. Um Sinead has already has already been on the podcast. She was on Stamped Episode 81 last year, and she's been sharing her love of train travel. So, you know, totally resonate with us, Sineade, the train travel, because it's something we love. Um, and obviously you've been on our UK travel planner podcast as well, one of our most popular episodes, episode three, all about visiting York, uh, where Sinead is an expert all about York, aren't you? So would you like to just share a little bit about yourself, uh Sinead, and um a little bit about your kind of your knowledge of York, because that is uh it is amazing, you know so much about that beautiful British city.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Yeah, I um I'm a York-based blogger. I've I also I have two travel websites. One's Matt

Meet Sinead And Her Travel Style

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Main Memories about family travel, and the other is York Travel Expert, where I sort of delve into everything you need to know about York, what to see, where the toilets are, where the parks are, where to get budget food, where to get good food, every everything a person traveling will need to know.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Absolutely, and York is is incredibly popular. So I'm sure um if you listen to this uh episode and you don't listen to the UK travel planning podcast, you need to pop over and take a listen. And um York will definitely be on your itinerary. I can't imagine if you're visiting the UK that you're not planning to visit York. Um so do take a listen to that episode, and I'll put in links to your um websites into the show notes as well, uh Sinead.

The 12-Day Turkey Route Explained

SPEAKER_02 2:34

But this episode we're gonna talk about your recent trip where you went to Turkey. So, do you want to give us a little bit of an overview of what you did? And where who you went with as well?

SPEAKER_01 2:44

We went as a family of four, it was our first trip as a four, not a five. So uh it was myself, my husband, and my two teenage children. We went for about 12 days, and we went the end of March, early April. So it's probably about two weeks before the tourist season in um Turkey actually kicks in. Um so we went before the main tourist season, which was was brilliant. That's that's how we prefer to travel.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yeah, so it was, I guess, a little bit quieter than uh than it it would ramp up to be, because obviously uh Turkey, Turkey is is is very popular with a lot of British British travellers as well. Um so give us a bit of an outline of your itinerary and how you go about kind of planning a trip.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Um well this this trip we knew would be a lot of moving around because we had a short time, it's a huge country, and we had a few must-sees, and they were not close to each other, so we knew it was going to be quite a frenetic trip, this one. Um so we flew to Istanbul and from there we took a direct flight to Ismir on the south. It's literally straight line north to south. That cut out about 16 hours of travelling, just taking that one and a half hour flight. Um from there we took a train to um Seychuk, where we stayed for a few days. We went to Ephesus, that was one of our must-d's. Then we went back to Izmir and we took a 14-hour overnight train journey to Konya in sort of central east Turkey. Uh from there we then took a bus to Kappadochia. Uh, we stayed in Garem Garim, I think it's pronounced, um, for a few days. From there we took a bus to Kaisery, a little further north, and from there we took a train to Ankara, and then another train from Ankara to Istanbul. So we did a full circle.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Fantastic. So I guess when you were deciding, like how do you decide? Do you decide as a family kind of the must-do things and places and experiences that that you want to do? Is that how you kind of do you have a power as a family and kind of sit down and decide that?

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Um, sort of, sort of. We um my husband really wanted to go to Istanbul. I really wanted to go to Cappadocia. Um, my daughter studied ancient history, so she wants to go to Ephesus. Um, my son's quite happy as long as he's fed. So um that that was what I mean. We knew because the weather wouldn't be uh beach weather, we knew we didn't need to go to beaches on this trip. Um, so we we tend to sort of start with right, what do we want to see? Is it possible to see it all? Um sometimes and other trips we've planned, you have to cut something out because it's just not feasibly possible. We we do like to travel somewhere and stay for three or four days at a time. Um that wasn't possible on this trip. We had a we had about four days in Istanbul, we had four days in Cappadocia, we had I think it was three days in Seychuk, but and the other places were sort of one night or just even a full day, and then we moved on at night. So it was a lot of travelling this time, which is probably more than we like to do, but we just had to try and fit it all in because you never know if you're gonna get to go back.

Cheaper Flights With A Reverse Search

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Um, yeah, and we were also on quite a tight budget on this trip as well. Um, so it did it did involve quite a bit of research on the cheapest way to get around, the cheapest way to get there. One one trick I would share with Turkey, especially, is I have used this trick before with other countries, is when we were looking at flights to Turkey, um, direct flights were quite expensive, they're coming in at around sort of £1,500-2,000 because it is quite a popular destination from here. And it's it's a long flight. Um, but one thing we try to stop off, if possible, doing indirect flights, making it cheaper. So one thing I try to do is a reverse search. So I knew we wanted to fly into Istanbul, so then I look at flights from Istanbul elsewhere using skyscanners everywhere search. And if you work out the cheapest places to fly from Istanbul to, you can then look at those flights to go into Istanbul, and they're usually the cheapest as well, and then you can sort of mix and match flights. So we flew with Ryanair from England to Romania, and we actually had three days in Romania first, and then we took a connecting flight to Istanbul with Pegasus, and on the way back we flew Pegasus to Brussels with Pegasus, and then Orionair from Pegasus, uh Ryanair from Brussels, sorry, to Manchester. Um, there are risks of doing that, especially if you're traveling with two different airlines, because if one flight is delayed, you're not covered then by the onward flight. But we as long as you sort of plan a good buffer in, it does mean more travelling, it means some waiting around at airports, but on this trip we saved about 600 pounds doing it that way.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Wow, that's great. And also you got to go to a couple of different places, I guess, because you spent a bit of time in Romania. So that's another country that you can. Yeah, exactly, exactly. You kind of go, okay, that's a that's another one I've been to and visited, so that was good. So um, that's a really good idea. Now we could talk a little bit about your your your time in Romania as well. I think we'll tag that on in the end because I'm quite interested, because that's somewhere that I haven't been in in Europe yet. Um, but when you were kind of planning the getting around Turkey and you did the trains and the buses, how did you how easy did you find getting that information and putting that together?

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Uh,

Booking Trains And When They Run Late

SPEAKER_01 8:32

really good. The the train website for Turkey, I think it's the TCDD, um, you can select the English language, so it was very easy to book. Um, the one thing I would say is that the sleeper train sold out quite early. We had to just sort of move our itinerary by a day to fit in with the sleeper train we wanted to take. Um, so if you need to do any sort of long distance journeys or one of the popular expresse journeys in the southeast, uh northeast, southeast direction, you would need to book quite far in advance for them. But it was a very easy booking system. We got digital tickets, I downloaded the app. Um, it was very easy, and train travel is unbelievably cheap there.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Wow. Um, and also I was thinking about the buses as well. Now I've just been watching, and this is a very popular program in the UK, and I guess you can access it around the world, and I know they do this similar program is their journey across the world, and I've just been watching that. And they they uh they went across Turkey and they they're actually in Mongolia now. I've got to watch the final, and I guess you've been watching it as well. I know, Sinead, you're a fan. Um, and I I just uh what always what opens my eyes because we love the train travel is just how good and comfortable a lot of the coaches are between destinations. So, did you find that the same in Turkey as well?

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Yeah, absolutely. We took um our overnight train, we bought uh a cabin for two, so we had a bed each and a sink, um, you know, powerpoints, everything you need. Um, and that 14-hour train in a cabin for two cost us £25 per person.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

Wow, that is incredible!

SPEAKER_01 10:12

That is incredible, it was amazing, and then we took the uh we took the Gune Expressi from Kayseri to Ankara at seven hours, and it was I mean it was a very slow train, but it was beautifully scenic. But the seats were very comfortable, the seats reversed, so you could also have a bit of a more of a communal thing, um, power points, it was really clean, there was a dining car, the toilets were clean, and that seven-hour journey cost us £6.50 per person.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

That is incredible, that is just incredible, and uh, as I say, a lovely way to travel, a slow way to travel, a way to enjoy and kind of take in the scenery. And you can all enjoy it when somebody's driving, there's always the somebody's driving, somebody's concentrating, somebody's having to do the navigating, so you kind of miss out on it. Um, and obviously flying, you don't see anything. Um but uh what about and how did that kind of contrast or what was the how were the coaches kind of in comparison?

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Um the coaches were comfortable, but um the ones we took a few bus journeys, they they had no toilets on, so you had to stop somewhere at you know a restaurant or whatever to go to the toilet. They were comfortable, they were quicker. I mean, the the train we took from Kayseri to Ankara, it would have been quicker to have gone by bus. Um, but the buses are slightly more expensive as well. And we we we find that um tray trains you can eat when you want, you can sleep when you want, you can walk around, you can talk to people a bit more because you go to the dining car and you can get chatting to people. And because they're not travelling on major roads, you you get to go past small towns, you see people working in the fields, we went past flocks of sheep with their shepherds, you went through some beautiful, you know, hilly valleys, and it was it was beautiful. Um, it is a bit in Turkey the trains are slower but they're cheaper. Yeah, but I highly recommend them, they are fantastic. Um, another cost I've got for you when we did the Ankara to Istanbul leg, we detried we decided to try the high-speed trains, so you know, sleek, efficient. Um, we it was four hours, and I I surprised the kids with a first class ticket because we've never ever travelled first class by train, even in the UK. And we got a little telly on our seat, we got a meal and a box, and that cost £22 each for a four-hour first class ticket.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Wow, it's fantastic. I I have to say, um, when I was looking at your trip, I was like, because uh we Doug and I have talked about actually going from London to through Europe to Istanbul and then doing something similar. So it's it it's it's great to see just how accessible it is, how easy it was to book, how how um you know cost effective it is as well, and just a fantastic way to travel. And obviously, you couldn't travel the whole country by train, which is why you kind of you you you put those bus trips in.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Yeah. The buses are good for short journeys, you can do really long. We saw one 36-hour coach journey that you could have done. Um, but you've really got to love buses for that, I think. The buses are fine, I think, for short journeys, use the train for long journeys. The only thing I would say with the train is every train we took from the departure station left on time, like to the second, it was fabulous. But if you join a long train mid-route, they pick up delays along the way. So you have to build in a buffer because sometimes we were four hours late, sometimes we're two hours late. And luckily we didn't have connections, but if we had had, we would have been a bit stuck.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Okay, so that's worth knowing to make sure, like they basically, if you're doing those sort of those train journeys, is to maybe stay in the destination that evening, so you're not, you know, don't have a connection that if you missed would would be sort of disastrous. So so I guess you you kind of you you had your itinerary, you kind of knew the places that you wanted to go to, and then you kind of put the how you're gonna get from A to B to C to D. Um

Hotels On The Move Without Stress

SPEAKER_02 14:16

that. What about accommodation? When at what point do you kind of start looking at accommodation?

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Um we we are notorious for booking late last minute, and this was this was worse than normal. Um partly due to work commitments and partly due to the situation in the Middle East, we sort of held off as long as we could. Um so I booked most of the accommodation the night before we flew out. Wow. Um, and then the our last stop was Istanbul. I booked that on the train just before we arrived in Istanbul. Wow. I wouldn't recommend it because it gets a bit stressful. Um, but the other side of that is we got some really good last-minute bargains as well. Um, this this trip we decided because we were moving so much, we decided to only do one layer BB. The rest of the time was hotels. Normally we try to rent a self-catering apartment, but with cleaning fees and admin fees, it it's not really worth it for a one or two nights. So we we did mostly hotels on this trip. And they they were brilliant. Most people spoke English, people that didn't speak English, we use Google Translate. Um, the hotels sort of varied in standard, but um we the cheapest we paid was £50 a night for the four of us with an ensuite room, and the most expensive we paid was about £120 a night for for and that was for two adjoining rooms in a hotel.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

So was that like £60 each? Was that the total?

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Or £120 for both rooms, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

All right, okay, that's not too bad at all. And and was there any standout accommodation, anything you kind of go, you know, if you went back, you'd you'd you'd want to go back to?

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Um I really like the hotel in Istanbul. It was um down at Cobbleside Street, and when you went up to the roof terrace, you had a fabulous view of the blue mosque. Oh wow. And that was the place that was £60 per room per night. Oh wow. And we got breakfast, we got breakfast for that as well.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Oh, that's good. I'll have to get the I'll have to get the names of the accommodation official aid and I can add that into the show notes. Um that's also useful for for pre-planning for us as well to to know recommendations uh places to stay. And um what what about so you can't you put the plan together, you had your transport, you you had your hotels. Did you think about kind of what experiences you wanted to have in the places that you were going to? Obviously, you mentioned Ephesus, so I'm kind of interested because I haven't been there. And obviously, Cappadocia is very famous for the the balloons. I mean, I don't want to go to see the balloons because uh the photos always look amazing. So, were there experiences that you looked at and thought we really want to do those? Let's let's see if we can add them in. Or and I know some of them are expensive. I know we did talk about the balloons in Cappadocia, which I think you need to remortgage your house to be able to afford

Ephesus And Cappadocia Hiking Days

SPEAKER_02 17:05

by the sounds of it.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Yeah. Um, Ephesus for us was a non-negotiable, um, and that was a fabulous day trip. It was really amazing. It's a huge, huge Roman site, and so much of it is really well preserved. And we've been to quite a few Roman sites around the world, but the scale of Ephesus was outstanding, and they had um their amphitheatre there can seat up to 25,000 people. It was just the scale of it was mind-blowing. And you're walking down this sort of marble pathway, and you think, you know, St. Paul walked down here, Cleopatra walk down here, it was it was amazing, it was it was a really impressive sight. Um, Cappadocia was on our list actually for the hiking. We didn't really want, we didn't really plan to do the balloons, didn't really want to do the balloons, but we we like hiking, and we'd read that it was a very accessible place to go hiking, and it was fantastic. You could you could walk out of the town for 10 minutes and you'd be in a deserted valley. And we did um we did three days of hiking there. Um it that it was quite challenging in a way because there was no maps available, we had to we had to go by other bloggers' recommendations and things people had put online. Trip advisor as well. We used they they weren't always completely accurate. We found a moderately challenging hike that turned out to be really difficult. All right. Um and the the the hikes weren't particularly well signposted either. But because you always know that the town is in the centre, as long as you know the direction you came from, you'd be able to find your way back. But we did some absolutely fantastic hikes there, some of the best we've ever done.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Um so do you go out for a whole day and you've got a hike? Is it a kind of a for me? A hike is like 10 minutes down the road. That's me for a hike. But um, is this a whole kind of day expedition that you go out? And how do you how do you prepare for that? And what do you like, you know, if you're going, you know you're gonna go hiking. So how do you prepare for uh eat a good breakfast?

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Yeah, yeah. Bring as much water as you can carry. We usually stop at we usually stop at a soup a little supermarket or corner shop to stock up on snacks and things for lunch. Um and we our sort of hikes average about seven or eight hours. It makes me tired all over just just here and that. But the the scenery was uh outstanding, it was really amazing.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

I must admit, I did see your photos, and um, I mean, I'm a notoriously not a hiker, but then I absolutely loved hiking in New Zealand, so I'll kind of come across as a bit of a fibber. Maybe it's just on but it depends where, and then I might be motivated. But I did look at your photos and it they did it did look absolutely fantastic. I was a little bit unsure when you said some of them were a little bit more challenging. I needed a little bit of a are there easier hikes for me for you know some somebody like me who doesn't particularly want to do anything that's particularly challenging.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Yeah, there are well-trodden hikes with quite obvious paths that are fairly undulating but mostly flat. I think if you're going to do some of the other challenging hikes, I would really do your research. Um get a map on your phone, don't rely on Wi-Fi because there won't be any. Um, and I regretted not bringing my hiking poles because some of the bits we did were really, really steep. There was a couple of bits where there was literally a rope dangling, you sort of had to pull yourself up on the rope. I was just thinking, I really hope I can trust this rope. And you're sort of pulling yourself up on bushes as well. It was really, really but it was we did one particular hike, it was a large circular hike through the red and the rose valley, and it's renowned for having cave churches, painted cave churches. None of them are signposted, none of them are labelled, so every hole or cave entrance you see, you have to go in. And we went into some, and there was these beautiful ninth-century frescoes on the ceiling, and then we went into another one, and there were stone carvings on the ceiling, and then we saw this really rickety bridge with a sort of cave entrance, and we walked across it, and there were steps carved into the rock, and you went up, and there was like inside a 30-foot church hand-carved out of the rock. It was, I mean, it was unbelievable, it was so beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

That's incredible. And you have to hike obviously, you've got to hike to these to these places and kind of discover them as you go.

Balloons From The Ground And Lamp Making

SPEAKER_02 21:23

That sounds amazing. And um, what about the balloons? I'm gonna have to ask you about the balloons because I think if we say kappa dokia, most people think about balloons. Is it as beautiful as it looks?

SPEAKER_01 21:33

It is, it is. I think we got we got enjoyment just by watching the balloons. We got up at half five six every morning just to watch them, and it was really peaceful, and especially as the sun comes up and hits the colours, it's beautiful. Um, but it is an industry, you know. We would be watching these beautiful balloons rising, and then there'd be a fleet of minibuses underneath driving around to drop people off and pick them up, um, and it Is it is a industry then you can do anything you want, you can have a photo in a red flowing dress, you can have a photo in a classic car. Um, the balloons for us we weren't tempted at all really because you can fit 18 people into a balloon, and we just felt it wouldn't be quite the experience we would be looking for anyway. And we looked into some prices, and it was about $250 per person, which for us was just out of reach. Um, but I think if you're on your own or in a couple, it would be a wonderful experience. Um, but one of one of the best things we actually did in Cappadocia, which was lovely, was an Airbnb experience, and it was a man who just started a business making um lamps, you know, the mosaic lamps. So myself and my daughter went and we had two hours making a lamp. We stuck all the mosaics on. He then fitted it into the lamp. We've got lamps about sort of that size, they're quite big. Um, we had uh Turkish Delight, we had um rose tea, it was lovely. And that was £15 each. That's we got a fantastic souvenir to bring home. So I think as well as doing the main sites in Cappadocia and the main attractions, there are lots of little things, people offering cooking classes, you know, guided tours. It was it was if you sort of look beneath the surface, I think you could have a really good one-to-one experience.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

That sounds really nice because I I have to admit, I traveling and going in a hot air balloon isn't something that I ever want to do. It doesn't appeal to me at all, but I do want to see it. I think it's just seeing, like you say, seeing the balloons come up. It was very balloon, it just sounds amazing. Um, and I love the idea of cookery class as well, and and making the the lamps as well. That's that's fantastic, and bringing those back. Talking about, I guess, cookery.

Food Costs And Finding Local Spots

SPEAKER_02 23:54

That's a really good segue into food. How did you find the food while you were travelling?

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Um, we were quite surprised by the price of eating out in Turkey. Um, it was quite expensive. A meal would be sort of between 15 and 20 pounds per person, and that was for the cheapest thing on the menu. So we we found our diet was quite basic. We had a lot of kebabs because that was the cheapest thing on the menu. Anything, you know, steak or fish was was quite a lot more. Obviously, we tried to sort of go where the locals go, it's not always that easy. Somewhere like Cappadocia is built for tourists, so it's not that easy. Yeah, um, but if you go where the locals go, it is a lot cheaper. We found a wonderful cafe in Istanbul, um, and that was excellent food, really cheap. In Seychik, we went to a P-Day restaurant. So P-Day is like an unleavened flatbread in the shape of a canoe. It's almost like a pizza, um, but it's it's save, it's filled then with savory things. So we had spinach and cheese, and you can get sweet ones for pudding, and they are about six pounds each. So they were they were delicious. So it's the age-old thing. Look, look to where the locals eat, and it will be a lot cheaper.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

Yeah, I did a food tour actually in Istanbul uh when I was there last year, and that was really good. I was um sometimes I know the food tiers aren't necessarily cheap, but they're also a good way to kind of find out what sort of foods are of it and where to eat. You can always ask a guide, and usually they'll give you a good good recommendation of of places to eat. Um, before I can I'm gonna ask you about a bit of a tip about um anybody planning a trip like you did to Turkey, um, what you know, what would you share? But I just want to quickly kind of skip back to to your few

Romania Stopover And A Spa Warning

SPEAKER_02 25:41

days in in Romania and how you found that. How did how did you plan that that section? Obviously, you had a flight in and a flight out, so that would kind of dictate how much time you'd have on those days. Um, was it your first trip to Romania?

SPEAKER_01 25:53

First time, yeah. Um, we actually went as a group of seven, my daughter and her friend came with us. Um, so we hired an Airbnb in central Bucharest, and we had a day in Bucharest. Um, and then because we're not really city people, the next day we took a train to Sinea up in the mountains, which was lovely. Um, and then our third day we had a day at the spa, the Thermay Spa, just outside Bucharest. We felt we all needed it. Um, but she actually stayed on after we left and she took another train up to Bran and went to Brassov. And um, she said those smaller towns and villages were the highlight of Romania for her. She really enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Well, I like I kind of like the idea of because you can obviously you could do this by train. If you've got longer, you could go to Romania and do a lot by train as well, because uh we we've looked at that in the past as well. Um, so Romania looks like it again, a kind of reasonable, reasonably um um accessible in terms of budget uh a destination as well to include in your trip. Did you find it kind of comparable to Turkey or or a little bit cheaper or um it varied?

SPEAKER_01 26:59

The accommodation was quite reasonable. We had an apartment for seven, and that cost us £80 a night. And that was in central Bucharest, right in the city centre. Um, eating out was cheaper again, but as long as you went to where the locals ate. Um, they had a lot of bakeries in Bucharest. Um, some of them were just like a window and a wall, and you knocked on the window and then you just told them what they want and they passed it out. They were very cheap. You could get a coffee and a pastry for about £1.50. Um, the one thing we were surprised at was train travel was slightly more expensive there. Our trip to Sinea, I think it was about an hour and a half to two hours, that cost us about £25 each. So compared to Turkey, it was much more expensive to use the train.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Um, was it kind of comparable, uh comfort-wise, nice train?

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Yeah, yeah, it was very good. Uh again, very scenic, um, ran on time. Um, no, it was it was very good, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

And did you book those train tickets ahead of time, or did you wait until you were in Romania to do that?

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Um I think we booked them there. We we weren't we weren't very organized. Um, so yeah, we booked them there. Um, we also went to the Thermace Spa, which is very popular with um weekend getaways. Um and I would say about that that it is it is quite expensive, but it is quite good value for money the longer you stay. The only thing I would say is we bought a four-hour ticket, and they count the four hours from when you go in the building, not from when you actually enter the spa. So if you can go in go in your spa outfit and then yeah, straight in. Yeah, and then when we came out, because obviously the the four hours ends as you leave the building, not when you leave the spa area. I couldn't find my locker, so I ran over time. So as I left, I got billed for another half an hour stay. So I'd really just keep an eye on the time in there, or all the costs start to add up a bit. And remember exactly where your locker is. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

So so overall, would you go back to Romania? I guess that gives you a little bit of a taste. Is it enough for you to kind of go, hmm, may you want to go back and explore a bit more?

SPEAKER_01 29:13

I would definitely, I wouldn't rush back to Bucharest, but I would I would like to explore the smaller towns in the countryside. They I mean the Sinea was lovely, it was really beautiful, and my daughter's photos of Bran and Brasov look lovely. So I think, yeah, definitely go back, but to explore the countryside.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

That's great. I'm just gonna throw one little

Packing Light Cards Cash eSIMs

SPEAKER_02 29:31

question in um as well about obviously traveling on the trains and using the buses, etc. How what how do you pack when you I guess you're quite a light packer, Sinead? You're pretty pre prepared. Um, so it you're a hand luggage only, I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Uh we are, but this time we all brought way too much stuff because we we assumed it'd be warm, and then about two days before we looked at the forecast. So um we had each had a day pack, and then we had two cabin 10k cabin bags. So we shared two bags between four of us, um, which is more than we usually bring, and I still felt it was too it was too much. Because we you're moving around a lot, the lighter the better.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

Yeah, and also it really I to be honest as well. If you're moving around a lot, if you wear a pair of jeans for two weeks, nobody's gonna notice. That's my exact as well with it. Um, and what about uh kind of accessing because you just did mention a little bit about accessing kind of uh you know Wi-Fi, uh keeping in kind of contact, um, you know, things like uh eSIMs and um what about kind of cash? What about those kind of practical aspects of of travel, particularly in in Turkey?

SPEAKER_01 30:48

In Turkey we carried some lira. We we tried not to use ATMs because they did charge a fee. So we had some lira each. So we tried to use a card as much as we could. We use Revolute or WISE. Um, yeah, we most places take credit cards, some places are only cash, some places ask for euros, right? But it it's still it's usually works out cheaper if you pay in lira.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

And then what about kind of keeping in contact with each other? Did you do good on the eSIM route or yeah?

SPEAKER_01 31:17

We we um we got everybody got a very basic package, just just enough for basic Wi-Fi and calling. I think I paid it, wasn't much, it worked out to be about 80p a day that I paid. And that that was enough. I was able to download films and everything on that, so it was great.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

Oh wow, that's really good. Um excellent, right? So is there anything? I guess I always end with the same thing. Is there any tip or the one tip that you would share if somebody's thinking, I really like the idea of this, and and and Sinead and I both are kind of sitting here going, go by train. If you can, take the trains around these countries because it is the best, best way to travel. And and Doug, if Doug was sitting on my shoulder, he'd be nodding his head vigorously because we we all love getting around by by train. Um, and actually watching this race around the world, I'm thinking, well, if I can't do it by train, I can always jump on a coach in between because they also seem quite good in a lot of these places as well. Um, so if there was one tip you could share with anybody kind of thinking about, oh, I quite fancy doing this, I quite fancy doing the flight over to TikTy and doing something similar to what Sinead's done, what would be the one tip that you'd share with them?

The Best Budget Tip And Final CTAs

SPEAKER_01 32:25

I think if you're a budget traveller, don't be afraid of missing missing things out. Because one, I mean, one of the things people said to us, Oh, you didn't you didn't go on the balloons, and we were like, no, but we didn't go for the balloons, we went for the hiking. The balloons were an added bonus, and we had I think we had four days in total there, and three of those days we didn't spend any money because we just went hiking. Um, in Istanbul as well, Istanbul was surprising. I loved Istanbul, I surprised myself because I don't like cities, but I loved Istanbul, I'd love to go back. Um but it surprised us how expensive it was for the major sites, but there's so many alternatives you can do that are cheaper. So to give you an example, the Hayes Safia to get into costs 25 euro per person, but right opposite is the blue mosque, which is completely free, and then you've got other mosques. Um, the Sulay Sulay Yamany Mosque is one of the most beautiful mosques I've ever been into. That was completely free as well. If you went on a bus for a boat trip, it cost you maybe 20-25 euro per person. We took a two-hour ferry ride out to the Princess Islands and it cost us £2.20 each. So there's lots of ways of saving money. You just don't have to do the big ticket things.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Yeah, it's kind of looking under the surface, isn't it? It's kind of looking at like those that those may be the kind of and of often over-touristed as well. And that's something that I think we're all becoming more conscious of now, is that you know, promoting, and I'm very conscious of that for the UK and for London on my on my other podcast as well, because we often talk about the big ticket, because I know a lot of people want to go to the big ticket, but it's actually looking underneath that because there are so many ways to save money, but also to see other sites where you're not going to be surrounded by 25 billion other people with the take taking the same photos, having the same experience. Um, so I I think that's an that's a really, really good and and very valid uh tip, Sineade. Very, you know, absolutely there's so much more to do often than kind of looking at those top things that everybody promotes.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

Yeah, you won't you won't be missing out, and you might find something you might find something better. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Well, thank you so much, Sinead, for coming on to the podcast. It's always great to chat with you. And um, I will link to your um websites, um, and obviously you've got Facebook groups as well, so we can link to that. So uh if you want to join Sinead on Facebook and kind of see where she's where she's where's your next plan, Sinead? Have you got something up your sleeve about where you're thinking about going next?

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Uh in the summer we're doing a bit of a tour of the UK, we're going to Scotland, Wales, uh back to London for a few days, across to Ireland, and then in October we're going over to New England, uh, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, and possibly New York.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Wow, okay, so you've got some great plans. Well, I know a great uh UK Travel Planner podcast if you need anything for your UK. I use it, I use it plans. Um, but otherwise, great. Thanks so much for coming on. And I'll get some photos off you as well so we can share some of those beautiful uh places, those beautiful churches that you discovered on your trip. Um, and also some pictures of the trains as well, please. If you can, Sinead, that'd be great. We'll do. Thank you very much for having me. A huge thank you to Sinead once again for joining me today. Links can be found in the show notes at globaltravelplanning.com forward slash episode 97. And if this episode has got you thinking about your own adventure, our free workbook, Plan Your Dream Trip with Ease, is a brilliant place to start. And if you enjoyed this episode, sharing it with a fellow travel lover is the best way to help more people find the show. Until next week, as always from me, happy global travel planning. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanning.com. Remember if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favourite podcast app because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always, happy global travel planning.